If you would like to see one piece of Dark Elf Terrain built what would it be?

I will build the option that gets the most votes and provide step by step instructions with plans and materials required so you can build your own as well. (This might take me a little while, but it seems like a fun project to take on)

Place your vote for one of the options above. Voting will run for 14 days.

So although I would actually like something really complicated, what I believe would be better for me is something a little simpler and would fit on many a battlefield. Therefore I think the altar fits my requirements nicely.

Ok I am hedging my bets here and thinking that the Corsair ship is going to win the poll and since I have just finished my last project and have had hopes to build something like this for a while now - I think I will jump the gun and give it a go!

STEP 1: RESEARCH

The first thing I do when tackling a project like this is plenty of research. I scour the web for inspiration and build a visual library of images that I can draw upon in the design of the piece, it might be colours, textures, technical aspects of how something is made etc

I few google image searches for "corsair ship", "dark elf ship", "black ark" etc and I could not find many projects already done like this. I did find a couple in the images below.

I'm not totally happy with the source material I have found - I think the models above look a bit clunky (no offence to the artists)

I decided to extend my google image search criteria a bit further "Model Ships" and found a massive amount of images that might be suitable but nothing specific enough. I got plenty of other good source photos of ships rigging, sails, hulls and found that you could buy plenty of off the shelf type kits for various model ships - but I want to come up with my own design.

Then I came across this nugget!!

To me this is exactly what I had in mind for a Dark Elf ship - I think this is what I will base the design of the ship upon.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."- The stiff breeze

After researching the model and looking for inspiration it's now time to pull together my own ideas into a concept. In this instance most of the leg work has been done for me - I have looked further and found some more images of this illustration that have been 3D modelled. These will provide a great starting point for the project. If I did not have these I would probably do up some very rough sketches of my ideas and work from there.

Sorry for the size of these images but I think it's good to show you all the amount of detail this person had gone to with the design - full credit to them.

I have also lightened up the images so some of the details are easier to see.

From what I gathered, those are screenshots from Warhammer Online. I never played it (regrettably) so the 3D model and artwork for it were part of the game design

I was pouring over that 3D model as well, and the drawing, to note the differences and errors in both designs. It mostly comes to details, but the key part where conflicts arise are the sails. In the drawing, it looks like the sails were drawn separately from the masts and lines. You can see all lines in front of the sails in the drawing, where some are on either side in the 3D model. The point in front of the sail where the sails are "hooked" on the boot are omitted in 3D model. A recurring difference between the art and the model is that the model is "simplified". A lot of the detailed lines are simply drawn on a flat surface in the model which isn't bad but sometimes it shows. These, I think, require some attention during assembly.

Some other differences:- The lack of RBTs on the 3D model- The railing/border shows those lines that look like scales from the drawing. On the drawing they just look like they were drawn independently of the boat's design, so when they cross the vertical reinforcements (with spear heads), it looks like just 2 lines crossing. They resolved that neatly on the 3D model.. But they did it differently: the drawing shows a smooth surface on the inside of that wall with only the vertical shafts and spearheads showing. On the 3D model, the texture is repeated on the inside.- The shooting gaps look larger and with a thicker border on the 3D model.

But when looking at that railing, although the drawing kind of respected a pattern, it seems mostly important to have a scaly effect, vertical spearshafts and windows rather than the exact same pattern.

I was thinking about I'd replicate the effect. I'd try to build a smooth railing first with the windows cut out. This would function as the inside of the railing. On the exterior, I'd glue on the scales individually as they seem easy to make/cut that way. I'd use filler or something to smooth out the differences. The vertical reinforcements would be the final part. I'm considering using plasticard reinforced with copper wire or a paperclip, then smoothed out with filler.

Meanwhile, my main concern is the general shape of the boat and the masts. It would be much easier to have masts that are solidly fixed to the boat first, and then attach the decorations than actually trying to set the masts with miniature rails and wires. To fix the masts in place, I was considering to use a solid block of wood as base, in which I'd drill the angular holes to fit in the masts but there tends to be a problem with such a method: you have to drill both holes almost in perfect parallel or it will look weird.

_________________I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."- The stiff breeze

On the subject of putting the masts in a proper angle, I was considering to drill a hole in a wooden rodd. You can place the mast inside that hole and fix it solidly. Then you drill a recess in a piece of wood where the wooden rodd fits in and rotate the mast to the right angle. When the right angle is chosen, glue/nail the rodd to its base. It's not as solid but perhaps strong enough.

If you want to be able to break up the ship in pieces, you're in for a challenge for sure. The lanteen sails make it hard to break it up vertically, and the rigging makes it a challenge to break it up horizontally. Hmm... Perhaps something with clippers?

_________________I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."- The stiff breeze

The screen shots above make me wish I had gotten a chance to play Warhammer online.

Yes me too!

Quote:

On the subject of putting the masts in a proper angle, I was considering to drill a hole in a wooden rodd. You can place the mast inside that hole and fix it solidly. Then you drill a recess in a piece of wood where the wooden rodd fits in and rotate the mast to the right angle. When the right angle is chosen, glue/nail the rodd to its base. It's not as solid but perhaps strong enough.

Might be worth looking at some other Model ships and see how its done.

Its far easier to convert things from bits then scratch build. I normally go through my bits bag and search around online for interesting bits that will fit into my models. I have been planning a project like this for a while now and slowly acquiring lots of bits and pieces.

My initial thoughts for what I will need...

- Flags, I have a few various flags from some HE kits- The Crows Nest (Look Out) I think these would be good from our DE Chariot chasse's- Ornamental jagged edges, the Dark Eldar have some great bits off their planes that might come in handy- Dragon Head, I have some bits from the HE dragon that I think will fit the par- Main construction I will use balsa wood- Masts, I will make these from dowel (not sure how to get the tapered look yet)- I also have some stairs from the Cauldron of blood kit that might work well

My next step is to create the top deck of the ship. This will form the frame work for the rest of the construction and give me a sense of scale to work with.

I start by taking a sheet of balsa wood 2.5x100x915mm and cut it down to 500mm long.

I then cut very thin strips of the sheet (approx. 5mm wide) these will be used as the planks.

I then number them in the order that they were cut so when I assemble them they will hopefully line up again.

Taking the first one I then cut it down to random sizes (keeping them in order). Then I glue each one using PVA glue to a sheet of A4 laser paper sticking them down in a straight line. I add a second sheet of paper to get the length I need.

Eventually I rebuild the sheet of balsa to look like decking. This is all glued to the sheets.

Note: when gluing the decking make sure to leave a very small space between each plank (.5mm) this will maintain the look of the deck, otherwise when its glued later it will just look like a normal sheet of balsa again (not the look we are going for)

I decided that I wanted to be able to fit a unit of 5 wide models on the deck, so did a quick test and had to make the width a bit wider.

With the deck now assembled I decided it would be a good time to seal the balsa. I do this by mixing PVA glue and water 50/50 so it is very watered down and then paint it over both sides of the deck (paper side as well - done in two sessions, let each side dry first). Once totally dry give it a light sand with some very fine sand paper to get all the fibres off the wood.

Note: during the sealing stage its good to flex the deck so that all the sides of the panels don't fully glue together (we want to keep that deck look)

Next divide the ship deck into sections and design the shape of the ship. I have used some plastic template/shapes to get the curves exact on both sides (you might like to cut some card shapes if you don't have these)

Now cut the ship deck to shape

Finally cut the deck into the sections required (going by the drawing I make it three sections) then give a light sand to the edges.

Nice work! I think I'll keep my ship as a project for 2016 or something I was curious about the scale of the ship. That seems like an appropriate size, but I wonder how it balances out with the rest of the details, such as the crow's nest and ship's head.

_________________I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."- The stiff breeze

Ok here is where it starts to get interesting! I spent a lot of time studying the sketch to figure out just how I would do this - very difficult indeed.

I wanted to start getting some height to this and join the deck sections together.

First I had to make an upright wall section that would run along the back, then I could cut the doorways in and model the stairs. I made this the same way I did the deck.

Eventually this section was cut down to 55x135mm but I made it slightly oversize so I had some room to play with (was unsure about scale)

Next I drew up some doorways in illustrator, printed them out and glued them to the balsa wood with PVA. (I will provide a plan for these at the end of the project) I then cut them out of the balsa wood.

Note: I can't stress enough how important it is to glue this to paper, it stops the balsa from splitting when cutting. Also using an extremely sharp scalpel blade as well.

Next I glued the door openings to the back wall section and cut the recesses out

Once that was done glue the door backing sections to the other side of the back wall section

You end up with a nice deep door section.

Next step is to cut out the stair wells, roughly 25x25mm

Now to make the steps, I did this by making up some boxes that the stairs could slot into.

These were ten glued in place underneath

Next I put in some angled sections for the stairs and some trim around the doors, sides.

I then made stairs to fit into the space and glued them in place. (don't glue the top deck section, this needs to be free to make the next step)

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."- The stiff breeze

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